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Most Women With Osteoporosis Unaware of Raised Fracture Risk
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> Currently, about 8 million women and 2 million men in the United States have osteoporosis, reflecting the way in which the disease disproportionately strikes women.
Those numbers suggest that the ensuing bone fragility means that one in two women and one in four men over the age of 50 will ultimately develop a disease-related fracture down the road -- usually in the hip, spine, wrist regions. And an initial fracture, in turn, raises the risk for more.
Disease risk is highest among older women, those with a family history of the disease, small and/or thin individuals, those with a history of broken bones, those with a sedentary lifestyle, smokers and excessive drinkers, and those with relatively low sex hormones (namely, estrogen and testosterone).
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Efforts to prevent disease onset are based on maintaining an adequate supply of calcium and vitamin D; getting sufficient exercise; avoiding cigarettes and alcohol; and, in some cases, medications.
The current effort to take the pulse of patient perceptions among osteoporotic women around the world involved more than 60,000 non-institutionalized women over the age 55 who had visited their primary health-care physician in the two years leading up to the study at one of 17 health-care facilities located across 10 countries, including the United States, Canada, several European nations, and Australia.
A little more than 11,000 women had osteoporosis, while the others did not. All completed questionnaires regarding their physical and mental health status, as well as their history of fractures.
The researchers found that 55 percent of women diagnosed with osteoporosis did not believe they ran a higher risk for fractures than women not diagnosed with the disease.
Dr. Mone Zaidi, director of the Mount Sinai Bone Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said the study rings serious alarm bells.
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Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 9/15/2008
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SOURCES: Ethel S. Siris, M.D., professor, clinical medicine, division of endocrinology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York City; Mone Zaidi, M.D., professor, medicine and physiology, and director, Mount Sinai Bone Program, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City; Sept. 15, 2008, presentation, American Society for Bone and Mineral Research meeting, Montreal
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